Seeing Clear
by Sebe
Summary: Derek didn't listen and put his pack in danger, forcing Stiles into a tragic situation to save them. The pack tends to the human as best they can. And Derek doesn't know what to do, but Allison knows. She's always been more observant than most and they just need a little push. Sterek and Pack-ness contained therein.


Author's Notes: I have neeeeever watched Teen Wolf. I'm a tumblr initiated Sterek fan and I'm still getting caught up on who all these other characters are. I've also never posted anything on Tumblr so I hope I'm doing this right? So, here's my first foray into this fandom. Hope you enjoy and lemme know what you thought of it. Also, wasn't too clear on who was in the pack at the time of writing, soooo just go with it for now.

Summary: Derek didn't listen and put his pack in danger, forcing Stiles into a tragic situation to save them. The pack tends to the human as best they can. And Derek doesn't know what to do, but Allison knows. She's always been more observant than most and they just need a little push.

**Seeing Clear**

Derek grunted in pain as his back hit the concrete pillar hard. Momentarily stunned, he scanned the room for his pack. Jackson, Erica, and Issac were starting to come around again, clearly still dazed. Lydia was out cold, but she would clearly be alright. Scott was blearily blinking his eyes open to a slightly worse-for-wear Allison's coaching, his hand stretching out vaguely toward-

Stiles was…He was very still, which Stiles never was. He lay on his side, back facing Derek. There was blood on his shirt, on the ground. As Derek watched, blood began creeping outward along the concrete floor, pooling. The alpha listened, but through the haze of bloodlust and with the others in the room, he couldn't pick out Stiles' heartbeat.

There was blood on Stiles. There was blood on the rival alpha's claws. Derek's mind left him. He snarled and attacked the crazed wolf more viciously than before, blindly, determined, but it made little difference. All Derek could hope for was that while the enhanced alpha was killing him, his pack would have time to escape. Exhausted, Derek stood ready to buy them all the time he could as the monster ran at him again.

Derek bared his teeth. The other alpha jerked, eyes widening, and dropped to the ground. Derek stared in shock at it's body and eventually dragged his eyes up to a wide-eyed and bloodied Stiles holding the blade they'd brought that could kill the enhanced abomination. He looked about two seconds away from a complete breakdown and Derek knew immediately that this was one of the worst possible outcomes.

Stiles had never killed before. And even if he was willing to to save his pack, Derek had known the first time would be hard on him. He'd tried to spare the human that particular 'first', but he'd screwed up. He just hadn't been strong enough…

"Stiles…" Scott called into the suddenly descended quiet, already making his way over to his friend.

The shaking of Stiles' hands became more pronounced until his entire body seemed like it was vibrating. Derek heard and saw the teen's breathing start to falter and hitch and the weapon dropped from his numb fingers. He collapsed and Scott practically leaped the next three feet to catch him. This seemed to snap the rest of the pack out of their daze and they were all moving toward the two in the center.

Derek could see Stiles' lips moving, but the words were broken, gasping breaths, high and thin. Scott had one hand on his shoulder, the other wrapped around his chest and the way Stiles' was slumped, that was probably all that was keeping him upright. Allison was behind him, gentle hand on his back. They murmured word of reassurance and sounds of comfort, but there seemed to be little effect.

Jackson and Erica stood a bit off to the side, both their brows creased in worry and fidgeting a bit, not knowing their place or what to do. Lydia and Issac remained somewhere in between, hovering and ready to help, but not wanting to be in the way.

Stiles' had stopped trying to speak, had stopped making any sound, actually. As the others started jostling him gently, looking for where he was injured and trying to stop the bleeding, it was clear he wasn't even hearing them. His eyes were set in front of him on the all too human looking creature he'd just killed, eyes going blank.

A hand settled over Stiles' eyes, cutting off his view of the corpse. Scott glanced up at Derek, but the alpha had his head angled so Scott couldn't see his face. Stiles choked out a cut off sob and Scott looked down to see his friend biting his lip bloody, teeth clenched with the effort to keep quiet. Words escaped him and Scott could feel Stiles' shaking through his whole body. The others were tending to Stiles' physical wounds, but Scott was just holding onto his friend, trying to comfort and anchor and _keep_ in his own clumsy way. He thought Derek was doing the same.

Derek pretended not to notice when a tear slid out from under his hand.

It had been over a week since the incident in the factory. Stiles' had tried to play it off, attending school even though he'd barely healed enough to get around on his own and making the effort to be overly cheerful and helpful. It hadn't lasted long though. Scott had been waiting for it and when Stiles' didn't head into their third period class, he went looking.

Up one hallway and down one more he found an on-edge looking Jackson standing outside the locker room. He looked anxious and a bit feral, shoulders up and back arched a bit and Scott realized he was guarding the room behind him. Seeing Scott, he immediately grabbed his upper arm and led him to farthest corner of the locker room. He gave Scott a tight, worried smile and pushed him forward. Scott had been pretty sure what he'd find, but it still hurt something in him anyway.

It took Scott twenty minutes to calm Stiles' down enough to even get him to uncurl a bit. Jackson paced the entire time. He kept his distance, made sure to keep anyone else who wandered by out of the room, but he was never out of eyeshot of the two. He wanted to help, as human and as pack, but he was clearly out of his depth. When Stiles had started struggling for breath, well, he'd been lucky to run into Scott because he had no idea what he would have done.

When Scott finally got a good look at his friend, his own breath caught a bit. Stiles lips were turning blue and he was barely getting any air. Scott wasn't used to being the one to fix things for Stiles, even when they were kids, it had always been the other boy pulling him out of the fire. But he knew he needed to do something now. Finding Stiles' backpack, he dug around until he found one of his own old back-up inhalers. Stiles had always kept one for him in case he forgot his own, even after the whole werewolf thing. _'Just in case'_, he'd said and shrugged it off like it was just what he did for his friend, because it was.

Stiles was mostly out of it and Scott thought that even if he wasn't, he wouldn't have had the coordination or strength at this point to hold the inhaler himself. Wedging himself against the wall behind Stiles, Scott pushed the inhaler between his lips and pressed down, telling Stiles to try and hold his breath. He counted softly in his friend's ear until he told him to breathe again. It worked to a degree, mostly just giving the panicked teen a rhythm to try and match his breathing to.

Threat of any stragglers from the last bell ambling in apparently gone, Jackson came back to see Scott holding Stiles and the inhaler again and counting. They locked eyes for a moment. Jackson reigned in his nervous energy and kneeled in front of them and Scott kept counting.

A few minutes later and they decided they needed to try and get Stiles out of there and home, preferably without attracting a lot of attention. Less assured and more gentle than Scott had ever seen him, Jackson moved to take one of Stiles' arms over his shoulder while Scott took the other. They managed to get him down the hallway and out to Jackson's car where Scott stayed in the back with a bleary Stiles and Jackson drove. Every other minute, Scott could feel Jackson's eyes on them through the mirror.

Since that incident, Scott, Allison, and Lydia had visited Stiles often. Jackson would text or call one of them to keep updated and even Erica would show up on the doorstep bearing various packages of food and never meeting the eyes of whatever caretaker happened to answer the door. The entirety of the pack made sure they were there for Stiles in some way.

Derek hadn't been seen since the factory.

Days passed like this and Stiles tried, but it was obvious he wasn't really improving. Dark circles had formed under his eyes. Even when he could fall asleep, he'd quickly jerk awake and smile far too broadly at any concerned faces. He seemed to only eat to appease his friends when they became too worried. He'd space out for stretches of time, not daydreaming, not thinking, just…staring and still.

So yeah, Scott was beyond worried. He looked at Allison apologetically as he got ready to head over to see his friend.

"Allison, I need to-"

"I know." She tells him, hand on his cheek and smiling softly. "I wouldn't respect you if you were the kind to knowingly leave a friend suffering for any reason, let alone a date. Go, Scott."

He kisses her sweetly and she watches him take off to Stiles' house. As soon as he's out of sight, Allison's expression sets in determination. She grabs her keys and makes her way to her car.

They'd been unprepared. Derek hadn't listened, had been overconfident in his abilities. They'd all voiced concern about just heading straight in after the clearly stronger alpha, but had let it drop almost immediately upon their own alpha's order. But Stiles hadn't.

He'd argued and reasoned and yelled till he was blue in the face, but Derek had only brushed him off angrily. Shot him down. Told him he was welcome to stay behind and that he was just a tag along anyway. Not pack.

Stiles had only paused a moment, forcing his expression not to change, but Derek saw his face fall, his shoulders slump. He'd hurt him. Scott shot him a withering look and none of the others looked him in the eye after the exchange. In the end, Stiles had gone with them, even helped them gear up for a fight that he'd _told_ Derek he didn't think they were ready for.

Derek knew this was his fault. He'd let his pride and ambition guide his actions, even overriding the instinct to keep his pack safe. He'd almost gotten them all killed and he'd allowed them to be hurt.

He'd allowed Stiles to be hurt.

Derek grit his teeth and huffed out a bitter laugh. What had he been doing? He'd hurt Stiles even before the fight. Called him _'not pack'_ even though everything in him was screaming at the lie. He didn't try to take it back even as he saw the blatant pain he's caused. Stiles _was_ pack, was more than that really. Derek thought that could be the reason he was so hard on Stiles, why he always ended up hurting him when all he wanted to do was keep him safe. He didn't want to face what Stiles really was to him. Even when the kid was scared of Derek, he'd stood up to him and Derek found himself less enraged and more intrigued by that every time. He was quick, smart, brave, protective of his friends and, recently, protective of Derek too. Stiles challenged Derek in every way.

More than pack, higher than that.

"What are you doing?"

Derek turned abruptly. He'd been so lost in his head that he hadn't heard her come in. A hunter in his house, feet away from him, and he hadn't even noticed. He really was just screwing it all up lately, wasn't he?

"What are you doing here?" He demanded in his sharpest tone. The girl didn't relent or retreat.

"That's what I asked."

"I live here." Derek replied snarkily.

"Stiles isn't here." She told him in a disappointed tone, like he was doing something wrong and should know how to fix it with just the words she was giving him.

Derek scowled and bristled, wondering where this was going. He arched an eyebrow at her.

"Glad you're so good at noticing the obvious."

He turned his back to her and heard her step closer. He growled and snapped, but she only stopped a few feet from him. She had no weapons and her eyes had no ill intent, but Derek was wary.

"Why aren't you with Stiles when he needs you?"

"…He doesn't need me."

"Even you don't really believe that, do you?"

"Again, why are you here?"

"Because Stiles is my friend. I don't like seeing him suffer, but I…I know I can't help him. I don't think the pack can either. But I think you can." She looks up at him plaintively. "He needs help, Derek."

Derek hesitated. He wanted to see Stiles, badly. But he'd been keeping his distance since the factory. Didn't she get it? It was his fault that Stiles was hurt in the first place.

"…His father's around. And Scott's with him. The rest of the pack too."

Allison sighs, annoyed and desperately trying not to believe the proof all around her that men, human or werewolf, truly were just that oblivious.

"Yeah, Stiles and his dad love each other, but you know their relationship is…complicated. Not like he can tell him what really happened. Scott and the rest of the pack…they might be werewolves, but they're still kids too. And when it comes down to it, Stiles is usually the one fixing things for them, not the other way around. They're out of their depth in this. They want to help, but they don't know how and it's putting them all on edge. You have to have noticed that, right?"

Derek had noticed. Whenever he saw his pack , they were unsettled. They knew one of their own was suffering and they should be doing something, but they didn't' know what.

"You know I'm right."

Allison looks at him straight and Derek drops all remaining pretenses of anger. He paces a bit, eyes darting about in confusion and frustration. And worry. Allison can see that plain as anything. She'd seen something between Derek and Stiles almost immediately. She wonders why it's so obscured to the rest of them and curses herself that she'd let it go for so long without saying anything. She thought they'd get it in their own time, or that they were purposefully avoiding one another, because how could they have not seen it? How bright they shine together.

…"I don't…even know what I would say. He almost-" Derek makes a new noise in the back of his throat that Allison immediately knows is distress, but it's there and gone. He's thinking about Stiles getting hurt, bleeding on that factory floor, about being so close to losing something so precious. "And he killed someone to save me. Because I couldn't protect my own pack! My own-" he stops, but she hears, _'mate'_.

She may not be a wolf, but she saw more clearly than they did at times. She knew. She'd been waiting for them to figure it out, but she regretted that now. The waiting had to end. They needed a push and she was there to do just that.

"I wouldn't know the right thing to say or what to do." Derek sounds defeated, head turned downward, eyes closed. He snaps up at the hand suddenly on his shoulder and the human staring straight at him, smiling softly.

"Who said you need to say or do a thing? Being there. Sometimes, that's enough. Sometimes, that's everything. And if you do need to say something, if he needs to hear it, the words will be there. You'll say them without even thinking and they'll be _right_. Because that's just how things are when you love someone."

Here's where he would normally mock her romantic sentiments, cut her down verbally, and leave. Instead, he looks at her in an almost pleading manner, wanting what she says to be true. After searching her eyes, he slowly nods. She pulls her hand back and Derek straightens, shoulders back once again.

He turns and walks toward the door purposefully and Allison sighs in relief. Hopefully, she's managed to help them, help Stiles and the rest of them in some small way. She knows now Derek's going to try and, whatever happens, she's content enough with that.

She hated there being a rift or unease in any family. And the pack was a family, she thought with only a slight pang, maybe more of one than her own. Family, pack, should mean safety, warmth, and a place to go home to, it shouldn't cause anxiety or fear. Derek's pack had a real shot at being that perfect kind of place to come home to. To curl up and let down your guard and know you were safe and, even if it was only because she was an extension of Scott, she was happy to be any part of that.

Derek pauses a moment in the archway, his voice startling her a bit.

"You have a place." He says without looking at her, voice gruff, but sure. Maybe he can't look at her, the child of a hunter, when he says these words, promises her this. Maybe his pride wouldn't allow it. "In this pack. Even without Scott…You have a place."

Derek heads to his car, leaving her stunned. The alpha werewolf that remained distrustful of her and her kind at best, had just essentially called her part of his family; had promised her a home.

Her breathing stuttered a bit as tears pooled in her eyes. She was only a little surprised at how happy she was, how content and warm. She collapsed back on the couch of the pack's- of her- home, legs suddenly weak.

She couldn't stop smiling.


End file.
